Plugin for Microsoft™ Dynamics™ CRM For On Premise and … · 2019-10-28 · Dynamics CRM standard form. Within a form, you can edit and clone each appointment directly. You can

Plugin for Microsoft™ Dynamics™ CRM For On Premise and Online Deployments

Apex Planner User Guide April 2018

Ver. 3.8

Apex Srl - (+39) 059 346284 – www.apex.it – Modena Via Emilia Est, 985 2

Contents

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 3

2. Installation and configuration ....................................................................................................................... 4

2.1. Default Configuration ............................................................................................................................. 4

2.2. Custom configurations ........................................................................................................................... 5

Appointment Visible Statuses ................................................................................................................... 8

Service Activity Visible Fields ..................................................................................................................... 8

2.3. About the license .................................................................................................................................... 9

2.3.1 How many users do you need to license? ........................................................................................ 9

3. The user interface ........................................................................................................................................ 10

3.1. Main page ............................................................................................................................................. 10

3.2. Type of views ........................................................................................................................................ 11

3.2.1. Timeline view ................................................................................................................................. 11

3.2.2. Month view .................................................................................................................................... 11

3.2.3. Day view ........................................................................................................................................ 12

3.2.5. Week view ..................................................................................................................................... 13

3.3. User and resource panels ..................................................................................................................... 13

3.4. Calendar navigator pane ...................................................................................................................... 14

4. Planning with Apex Planner ......................................................................................................................... 15

4.1. Create a new appointment ................................................................................................................... 15

4.2. Edit appointments ................................................................................................................................ 17

4.3. Service activity ...................................................................................................................................... 17

4.4. Copy appointments .............................................................................................................................. 18

5. Scheduling unscheduled appointments ...................................................................................................... 19

6. Using Apex Planner features ....................................................................................................................... 20

6.3. Working hours ...................................................................................................................................... 20

6.4. Appointment Colors ............................................................................................................................. 20

6.5. Grouping ............................................................................................................................................... 21

6.6. Search available users .......................................................................................................................... 23

7. Troubleshooting .......................................................................................................................................... 24


1. Introduction

Apex Planner is a plugin module for Microsoft Dynamics CRM tailored to visually schedule resources within

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Service Module. It is designed for businesses that need to streamline a shared

calendar management.

Apex Planner enhances the service calendar adding features from Microsoft Outlook in a web-based planning

table. It extends the standard calendar allowing drag-and-drop features to reschedule or assign

appointments to other users or facilities. Users can be grouped into teams to access only the calendar of a

given team at a time. Facilities can be grouped into sites.

Each appointment can be moved in time and assigned to other users through a drag and drop. The same can

be done for facilities and equipment. The information included in each appointment is displayed in a wider

area to allow the schedule manger to get all the facts without opening each appointment.

A custom form allows the creation of appointments and service activities without using the Microsoft

Dynamics CRM standard form. Within a form, you can edit and clone each appointment directly. You can

also choose to use the standard CRM forms, if you want to edit your custom fields or if you like them more.

Apex Planner allows you to allow a specific number of users to execute the application, using a specific

security role. You can also filter the users you want to display on the Planner.

Apex Planner is available for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.


2. Installation and configuration

1. Import the solution into Dynamics CRM.

2. Should the import process give a warning such “0x80048026 Translated labels for the following

languages could not be imported because they have not been enabled for this organization: xxxx”,

then it can be ignored. The cause of this warning is that the system you are importing Apex Planner

to does not contain all the Planner languages.

2.1. Default Configuration

Grant the proper permission to all users you want to use Apex Planner. Go to “Settings – Security - Users”.

Select the desired user(s) and open security roles. Click on “Manage Roles” and check the role “Apex Planner

User”.

In “Settings – Apex Planner 3” you can find “Planner Configurations”. The first configuration you have to

create is the default configuration. Click on the “New” button on the ribbon. Here there are some tips on

how to fill the fields.

GLOBAL INFORMATION Section

Visible only on the Global Configuration (Is Global = “Yes”)

License key The license key that has been assigned to your organization.

DO NOT EDIT THIS FIELD.

Company Name The owner of the license. DO NOT EDIT THIS FIELD.

License Type Can be Demo, Subscription or Perpetual. DO NOT EDIT THIS FIELD.

N. of Users The number of users which the license enables. 0 means an unlimited

number of users. DO NOT EDIT THIS FIELD.

Activation Date The date when the license has been assigned to your organization. DO NOT

EDIT THIS FIELD.

Expiration Date The date when the license will expire. DO NOT EDIT THIS FIELD.

Service Expiration Date The date when you license maintenance will expire. DO NOT EDIT THIS

FIELD.


Visible Users You can use this grid to specify all the users you want to be visible on the

Planner. This could be useful to limit the amount of licensed users.

2.2. Custom configurations

If you need custom configurations, add a new “Planner Configuration” entity and assign the configuration to

the desired user. The user must belong to the “Apex Planner User” security role. Fill the fields according to

the user’s needs.

An example of a custom configuration for the user “Test Apex” is the following:


This configuration will be used every time the user opens the planner, and overrides the “Default” one. Note

that you do not need to enter the license key or the resource group on Custom configurations, because they

are loaded only from the Default configuration.

USER DEFAULTS Section

Configuration Name Choose a name which briefly describes the configuration.

Enable Standard CRM forms If Yes, the planner opens standard CRM forms in a new

window, instead of showing the custom internal form.

Enable Filters Shows the drop filter at the bottom of sidebar.

Enable Unscheduled Shows a button in the navigation bar to display the

unscheduled activities.

Sidebar width Choose the initial width of the sidebar on the left of the

Planner.

Refresh (seconds) Forces Apex Planner to refresh appointments/service

activities every X seconds.

Enable Tracing Enables the client tracing (for debugging purposes).

Show owned/organized color Shows the owned organized color and allow color

selection if “YES”.

Owned/Organized Color Color selection for the organized events.

Default View The view from which the planner starts.

Show My Planner

If Yes, Apex Planner automatically selects your users at

startup. This option disables the Default

Team/Site/Resource Group settings.

Default Team At startup, Apex Planner automatically sets the specified

Team as filter.


Default Site At startup, Apex Planner automatically sets the specified

Site as filter.

Default Resource Group At startup, Apex Planner automatically sets the specified

Resource Group as filter.

Section Visibility

Allow to select the visible sections on Apex Planner

between: Users, Facilities, Teams, Sites, Resource

Groups.

ACTIVITY SETTINGS Section

Enable New Appointments Enable the creation of new appointments on Apex

Planner.

Enable New Service Activities Enable the creation of new service activities on Apex

Planner.

Show owned activities

If yes shows user appointments and service activities by

the selected user. If no shows only activities where the

selected user is a resource.

Show organized appointments

If yes shows user appointments organized by the selected

user. If no shows only activities where the selected user

is a resource.

Hide canceled activities Hide or show activities with state “Canceled”

Hide completed activities Hide or show activities with state “Completed”

Default Start Hour New appointments/service activities will start from the

specified hour.


Default End Hour New appointments/service activities will end at the

specified hour.

Availability Check (Enable for Appointments) When you are saving an appointment, Apex Planner will

search the CRM and report any conflicts.

Availability Check (Enable for Service Activities) When you are saving a service activity, Apex Planner will

search the CRM and report any conflicts.

Appointment Visible Fields Choose the fields that will be displayed on the

appointment box of Apex Planner.

Appointment Visible Statuses Choose the status reasons that will be available for the

appointment on Apex Planner.

Service Activity Visible Fields Choose the fields that will be displayed on the service

activity box of Apex Planner.

Service Activity Visible Statuses Choose the status reasons that will be available for the

service activity on Apex Planner.

Show confirmation messages

If yes, the planner asks for confirmation every time you

make a change, and displays success and failure

messages.

View SETTINGS Section

Hide Weekends Hide Saturdays and Sundays from the Timeline view.

Row Height (min)

Set the minimum height of each row of the Timeline

view. 1 unit means the height of a single-line event, 2

means the height of two stacked single-line events and

so on.

Timeline: Visible Days Number of Days shown on timeline

Timeline: Back/Forward days Set the number of days the arrow buttons of the

navigation bar will move forward and backwards.

Day: Zoom Level Duration of each row of the Day view


Day: Start Hour Sets the hour from which the Day view starts.

Day: Visible days The number of days that will be visible on the Day view.

Day: Back/Forward Set the number of days the arrow buttons of the

navigation bar will move forward and backwards.

Week start Sets the first day of the week view

Days Sets the number of days shown in the week view

Weeks Sets the number of weeks displayed in month view

2.3. About the license

The license is bound to an Organization Unique Name: it can be used only for the CRM organization for which

it was created

The license key limits the number of users and the time interval. You can see the maximum number of users

allowed and the expiration date opening the “About” window into the Planner. Suppose that you have a

license for 50 users that expires on January 1. If your organization has more than 50 users to license or if the

current date is over January 1, the planner reports an error.

There are three types of licenses:

DEMO licenses

These licenses last for one month, but guarantee an unlimited number of users. This is the kind of

license that is provided when you register on the Apex site.

SUBSCRIPTION licenses

These licenses include a limited number of users and an expiration date.

PERPETUAL licenses

With these licenses, you have a limited amount of users, but no expiration date.

Within one year from the purchase date, you can download and install the latest Apex Planner releases: your

license will remain valid. After a year (if your license is not expired yet, mainly because it is PERPETUAL) you

can still keep using Apex Planner, but cannot install the following releases. You can see the maintenance

expiring date in the “About” window.

2.3.1 How many users do you need to license?

The minimum number of users that you need to have in your license is calculated as the number of active users visible on the Planner plus the number of active users which have “Apex Planner User” role. If a user matches both rules, is counted only one time. If you want to show less users on the Planner, go to the Visible Users grid of the Global Configuration, then add only the users you want to see. Note that, if the grid is empty, all users will be visible. You can find a summary of the licenses you need on the Solution Configuration page.


3. The user interface

3.1. Main page

When you open the Apex Planner main page, you have nothing displayed, because there are no users or

resources selected. You have to select at least one user or one resource in order to view their appointments.

The main page looks like the following picture:

You can notice some buttons on the top the window: the following table explains their actions.

Show the previous appointments.

Today Go to today.

Show the upcoming appointments.

Opens a drop-down list that allows you to change the current view; the icon you see is the

current planner view.

Switch to Timeline view

Switch to Day view

Switch to Week view

Switch to Month view

Decrease the amount of appointments displayed (zoom in).


Increase the amount of appointments displayed (zoom out).

Refresh the planner.

Print the current view.

Export the image of the current view.

Open your Planner Configuration.

Open the About dialog.

3.2. Type of views

Apex Planners has five different type of views: timeline view, month view, week view and day view. You can

switch between the view types using the “Change view” button on the top of the planner.

3.2.1. Timeline view

The Timeline view displays appointments as horizontal bars along the time scales, and provides end-users

with a clearer overview for scheduling purposes.

3.2.2. Month view

The Month view is the least detailed of the views, and is designed to allow your end-users to browse and

analyze long-term plans. This view positions the days one after another horizontally so that they form weeks,

while weeks are placed one under another.


3.2.3. Day view

The Day view gives the most detailed view of appointments for a particular day.


3.2.5. Week view

The Week view displays appointments for the working days in a particular week.

3.3. User and resource panels

You can expand the user panel by clicking the arrow button on the top of “Users-Facilities-Teams-Sites-

Resource Group” section. With the user panel, you can select which users you want to consider. You can type

a filter string into the “Search” text box and/or select a CRM team from the combo box. You can also select

multiple users or resources.

If you want to select/unselect all users or resources, click on the checkbox on the top of the list.


3.4. Calendar navigator pane

You can expand the navigator pane by clicking the arrow button on the top of “Calendar” section. With this

calendar, you can easily switch between distant days. The data range that has been loaded is shown on the

bottom of the panel.


4. Planning with Apex Planner

With Apex Planner it is easy to create new appointments and update the existing ones. You can simply drag

and drop your appointments if you want to move them to different dates or you can change more accurately

the appointment information using an edit dialog.

4.1. Create a new appointment

Select the day (hour in day view) in which you want to create the appointment: this day (hour) is now colored

orange. Double-click and select “Appointment” from the list to open the “New appointment” dialog.

• Title: title of the appointment (mandatory).

• Location: the location of the appointment.

• Start/End: date and time when the appointment begins and ends. Finish date must be greater than

start date.

• All Day Event: if checked the appointment is marked as an all-day appointment.

• Regarding: a lookup field pointing to CRM records.

• Description: description of the appointment.

• Status reason: a drop down list where you can select one of the possible appointment states. The

planner shows different states using different colors.


In the “Required Resources” field, you can specify which users or resources are required for this

appointment. Clicking on the lookup field opens a CRM dialog, where you can select the user/resource you

want to add. Remember to click on “Add Resource” if you actually want to add the selected item to the list.

Clicking on the button “Delete” removes the corresponding user/resource from the list.


The resulting appointment is the following (on day view):

4.2. Edit appointments

When you want to update an appointment, you can just double-click on it and edit the information using the

same dialog you have used to create it.

If you want to assign the appointment to another user, simply drag and drop the appointment on another

user’s section. This also works if you want to change the date of the appointment.

Pressing the button “Open in CRM” you will be redirect to the appointment’s page on the CRM.

4.3. Service activity

Service activities behave in the same manner as appointments. The only differences are:

• There is one more mandatory lookup field named “Service”.

• There is one more optional field named “Site”.

• There is one more optional field named “Customers”.

• There is no “Optional” tab.


4.4. Copy appointments

You can create a copy of an appointment / service appointment by holding CTRL button and dragging the

original appointment to a new position. The Copy action replicates every custom field you may have on your

entity.


5. Scheduling unscheduled appointments

Apex Planner 3 introduced a new functionality: all the appointments and service appointment in your CRM

that have no associated resources are showed in the “Unscheduled” section.

The unscheduled section is divided in two areas: one for appointments, one for service appointments: you

can see their name, duration and customers (this one only on service appointments).

If you drag and drop an appointment on a user or on a resource, Apex Planner plans your appointment,

making the following changes:

• The new resource for the appointment is the user of facility on which you have dropped it.

• The new start date is the date on which you have dropped the appointment.

• The new end date is the starting date plus the original appointment duration.

You can decide to unscheduled an appointment or a service appointment, removing all associated resources

and thus placing it in the “Unscheduled” section: just right-click on the desired appointment and select

“Unschedule” from the context menu.

The Planner normally does not show unscheduled appointments and service appointments. If you want to

see them, set the field “Show unscheduled appointments” of your Planner configuration to “Yes”.


6. Using Apex Planner features

6.3. Working hours

Apex Planner 3 displays handles working hours for users and resources. The Planner can have two different

backgrounds:

• If the background is white, the user/resource is available.

• If the background is grey, the user/resource is not available.

You can set the working hours on CRM, on the User and Facility entities.

6.4. Appointment Colors

Each user can customize the appointments color, using the Planner configuration. The “Color” section of the

“Appointments” tab lists all the status codes for the appointment and service appointment entities.

You can freely change the colors that are associated to each status code: if you save the Planner

configuration, the new colors will appear on Apex Planner.


6.5. Grouping

With Apex Planner, you can group your CRM users and resources. The dropdown on top-left shows two new

sections: “Teams” and “Sites”. Both sections share the same layout, which is the one below.

1. Name of the sites, check the corresponding box to show the single site.

2. Remove the single users from the Planner view. If grouping is active, deselecting a user results

in hiding his/her appointments.

3. Dragging a Sites or a Team at the bottom box of the left panel will filter all the resources based

on the selected filter.

In the following screenshot grouping by team is enabled. The “Organization” team shows all

appointment that belong to users of this team. Since “Organization” is the main team (this team always

contains all CRM users), it contains the appointments of all users.


It is also possible to group by sites and see all appointments for each site.

The Teams section behaves exactly like the Sites section, except that you can select users by teams and

not by site.


6.6. Search available users

Apex Planner allows you to find when a user is available for scheduling. In order to make the scheduling

system work at its best, you can set the work hours of each users into the CRM. When searching for available

users, both their work hours and existing appointments are taken into account.

1. Choose a team and click “Add” to add all users from that team.

2. Choose a site and click “Add” to add all users from that site.

3. Choose a user and click “Add” to add a single user.

4. A list that contains all the users you want to schedule.

5. The search will start from the time you indicate here.

6. The duration of the appointment you want to schedule.

7. The span of your search in days (7 = search availability for the next 7 days).

8. Start the search

9. Each list item represents an available time slot. Click “Book” to open a new appointment, which

will contain the requested resources and starts at the time you indicated.

10. Close the current search window and open a new blank one.


7. Troubleshooting

This section is intended as a quick help to resolve the most common errors. For any other trouble, feel free

to contact us at [email protected].

When opening Apex Planner, it stops working and displays the message: “License is not valid or expired”.

• Check on the Planner configuration if the license key is correct.

• Check if your Organization Unique Name matches the one on the registration email. You can find the CRM Organization Unique Name under Settings -> Customization -> Developer Resources.

• Your demo license or your subscription may have ended. Contact [email protected] for a new license key.

I cannot see all my users on the Planner.

• Check the Planner configuration and see if there is a “User resource group” filter: only the users

who belong to that group are loaded. You can leave that field blank if you want to load all users.

• Remember to publish the Resource group after you have created or modified it.

Apex Planner displays the message: “The maximum number of users allowed by the license has been exceeded…”.

• Associate only the users you want to display to a Resource Group and add this group to the

“User resource group” configuration field.

• Remember that also users with “Apex Planner User” security role need to be licensed.

• Contact us at [email protected] to get a new license for more users.

The Planner takes too long to load when changing the date interval.

• Try to set the field “Cached days” to a lesser value.

• Filter users and/or resources using “Default team” and “Default site” fields.

The Planner reloads too often when changing the date interval. Try to set the field “Cached days” to a higher value.

I use standard CRM forms. When I open an appointment, some fields are not auto-filled. Apex Planner uses a couple of custom fields to store temporary resource data. The appointment / service activity / recurring appointment forms must contain the following (hidden) fields: “Apex Planner Extra Parameters” and “Is Unscheduled”.

mailto:[email protected]



Documents

Plugin for Microsoft™ Dynamics™ CRM For On Premise and … · 2019-10-28 · Dynamics CRM standard form. Within a form, you can edit and clone each appointment directly. You can